Overtime

USC Aiken senior Clint Keown and Augusta State senior Gary Boodnikoff were named to the Daktronics South Atlantic NCAA Division II All-Region team Tuesday.

Despite losing out to Boodnikoff in the voting for Peach Belt Conference player-of-the-year honors, Keown was named first-team All-Region, while Boodnikoff was a second-team selection.

Keown, a native of Evanville, Ind., led the Peach Belt Conference and finished third in the nation in scoring, averaging 24.7 points a game.

Boodnikoff, who led Augusta State to its second straight Peach Belt Tournament title last weekend, averaged 19.8 points a game for the Jaguars this season. The 6-foot-7 native of Australia was named conference player of the year and also earned tournament MVP honors.

College baseball

Southern Indiana defeats Jaguars

A five-run fifth inning pro-pelled Southern Indiana Uni-versity to a 7-3 victory over host Augusta State in nonconference action Tuesday.

Andre Hanks went 2-for-4 with his fourth home run of the season in a losing cause for the Jaguars (16-5).

The teams play again at 2 p.m. today.

Gardner-Webb (9-5) overcame a 3-2 deficit with three unearned runs in the ninth inning on two-out doubles by Darin Thompson and Blake Lalli to defeat Georgia 5-3 Tuesday in Athens.

An error by second baseman Justin Holmes allowed designated hitter David Futrelle to reach first, then Sam Bradford singled to right off Jeffery Carswell (0-2). Thompson's double to right scored Futrelle, and Lalli's drive to left drove in Bradford and Thompson.

Georgia (4-3) took a 2-0 lead in the first with David Coffey's two-run homer.

Clifton Remoles' sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted Georgia Tech to a 6-5 win over East Tennessee State (5-5) on Tuesday.

Matt Murton, who had three hits in the game, led off with a double. After a failed sacrifice bunt, Jeremy Slayden put runners on first and third with a single to right. Remole then belted a 1-0 pitch to the right field wall to drive in Murton with the winning run.

Brian Burks (3-0) tossed four perfect innings, including five strikeouts, to close out the game for the Yellow Jackets (10-1).

Swimming

Johnson takes 2nd in sectional meet

Joel Johnson of Greater Augusta Swimming led all area competitors with a second-place finish in the men's 100-yard backstroke in the Southern Zone Eastern Sectional Swimming Championships at the Augusta Aquatics Center this weekend.

Johnson's time of 51.32 seconds qualifies him in the top 16 in nation among swimmers ages 17-18 in that event.

Ryan Gober scored five points in five events to help Johnson lead the Greater Augusta men's team to a ninth-place finish and the combined team to a 14th-place finish in the 64-team field.

Arena football

AFL strikes deal with NBC Sports

The Arena Football League kicked off what could be a mo-mentous month for its business model by reaching a deal to televise games on NBC.

The new contract, an-nounced Tuesday, doesn't call for the traditional rights fees. Instead, the 16-year-old AFL and NBC Sports will enter into a revenue-sharing partnership in which they will split adver-tising profits 50-50. In addition, NBC will become the first broadcaster to share any in-creases in franchise values.

Now that it has secured network exposure for its games, the AFL will soon find out whether the National Football League will exercise its option to buy up to 49.9 percent of the league. The issue will be on the agenda of the NFL owners' meeting scheduled for March 16-21 in Orlando, Fla.

Nine NFL owners, including the Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones, have bought franchises in the AFL, which will expand from 16 teams to 20 teams in 2003 and at least 23 teams in 2004. The Dallas Desperados, owned by Jones and family, will begin play in April.

NBC plans a regional telecast of up to four regular-season games on 15 Sunday afternoons, plus six playoff games and the championship ArenaBowl. Teams will retain the rights to show their games in local markets as long as the telecasts don't conflict with NBC's.

As part of the NBC deal, the AFL will start its season earlier, beginning in February and ending in June. This year, the league plays from April through August.